Beginning Again: Graham Nash’s “Songs For Beginners” at 50

Graham Nash, with engineer Larry Cox, listening to playback of his first solo album, “Songs for Beginners,” at Wally Heider Recording in Hollywood in January 1971.

Published in Far Out Magazine, 28th May, 2021

“I try to find the very essence of what I am trying to say, make it as simple as possible to let people know what I am feeling … that’s what I do, I’m a writer.” Graham Nash

There’s no denying that Graham Nash’s work with The Hollies helped define the sound of British Rock and Roll. But by the end of the 1960s, it was clear that they were moving in different directions. It wasn’t for lack of trying, though. When he offered up songs like “Lady of the Island” and “Teach Your Children”, the band was less than receptive. When he tried recording “Marrakesh Express” with The Hollies at Abbey Road Studios in 1967, but the sessions failed to capture the right vibe for the song.

A fateful encounter — facilitated by Cass Elliot — with David Crosby and Stephen Stills , in the Summer of ’68 would provide the vibe he was after, ultimately sealing Nash’s future with the folk rock supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash, and later Neil Young. That December he set out for sunny California.

“I was twenty-six years old and came with basically nothing, just my guitar, a small suitcase, and a few of my favorite things… I had no money to speak of.”- Graham…